The Father of Modern South African Art

We went to see the opening of an exhibit on a South African artist named Gerard Sekoto at the Wits Art Museum on the campus of Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand . We went mainly because the exhibit was in conjunction the posthumous publishing of a children's book Sekoto wrote and illustrated in 1973 called Shorty and Billy Boy. It is a tale of two naughty dogs or as he describes them "two notorious dog-chaps" and since we have two naughty dog-chaps ourselves named Lou and Serge we thought it might be fun to check it out. I had also recently co-written a children's book myself with my sister called The Library by the Sea, (illustrated by Kristin Shoemaker-Schmidt, published by ..., oh well... it hasn't been published yet but we're working on it!) and I am very interested in seeing the work of other children's book authors.

A Portrait of a Cape Coloured School Teacher, Omar

The Wits Museum did have the original handwritten manuscript on display complete with his original watercolor illustrations and we did buy a copy of the book which had just been published with the support of the French Institute of South Africa. But we found out that Gerard Sekoto was not really a children's book author and illustrator after all. He was much more than that.  He was a great South African musician and artist recognized as a pioneer of urban black art and social realism.

The Song of the Pick

Born in 1913 in Botshabelo in the eastern Transvaal, Sekota established his career as an artist in Johannesburg, Cape Town's District Six and Pretoria before leaving South Africa for France in 1945 where he stayed for the next 45 years until his death in 1993. Gerard Sekoto is considered by many to be the ‘Father of South African Art’. As a South African, some of his works have achieved extremely high values in the international art market with pieces carried in private and corporate collections around the world.  In his birthplace of South Africa however, he is still relatively ‘unknown’ amongst the general public.

Yellow Houses District Six

The recipient of many awards and high honors including South Africa's Order of the Ikamanga, the highest award the country offers for achievements in the Arts, Sekoto was named one of France's distinguished Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Sekoto exhibited often in Paris at galleries and in museums and I am sorry I never came across an exhibition of his work when I was there.

For more information, check out his foundation's website, gerardsekotofoundation.com.